NEW PORT RICHEY — The images Duane Sabo sent raised 82 flags in a database that monitors child porn crossing the Internet, Pasco sheriff's deputies said. It was more than one detective had ever seen in his career, and some of the most grotesque.

"They were very disturbing things," said Detective William Lindsey of the Pasco County sheriff's major crimes unit, including "some of children raped by animals."

The first ping came from Sabo's Internet service provider about a year ago, Lindsey said. By law, Internet companies are required to report all questionable material to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

How do investigators find these particular images among millions crossing cyberspace? With a system called PhotoDNA, made by Microsoft. It works like this:

The center has a collection of images deemed inappropriate and assigns each image an individual code, according to Microsoft's website. The center then sends these codes to Internet service providers to be used as a filter. When an image matching one of those codes is transmitted by a user, the system alerts the provider, who then alerts the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Then investigators track the location of that user's computer.

Sometimes, Lindsey said, the download of one image can be accidental, so there is a lower priority on those reports. But if more than one file is reported, his unit, Internet Crimes Against Children, pursues the account owner.

On Nov. 26, a Pasco sheriff's report states, Sabo transmitted a file with 97 images of children between the ages of 6 and 14 engaged in sex acts. He used an Internet connection registered to his elderly mother. Lindsey's unit requested a search warrant, tracked and found the files on Sabo's computer.

He was arrested Tuesday on 10 counts of possession of child pornography, the minimum to make the case a second-degree felony. Sabo, 65, confessed to having the images, the report states.

"He wasn't remorseful about the pictures or about sending them," Lindsey said. "When you're looking at and getting sexual pleasure from those images, there's something wrong."

Sabo, of 4949 Hazner St., remained in the Land O'Lakes jail Wednesday in lieu of $170,000 bail.